Ikiru (Doomed) (Living) (To Live) (1952)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Adriel L

  
  A well crafted film with a heartfelt story that is poignant, deep, this masterpiece of a film laments life's biggest truths about our own measly, mortal existence. I haven't seen a modern movie quite like it. Ikiru is a brilliant film because of the ingenious cinematography,… More
  A well crafted film with a heartfelt story that is poignant, deep, this masterpiece of a film laments life's biggest truths about our own measly, mortal existence. I haven't seen a modern movie quite like it. Ikiru is a brilliant film because of the ingenious cinematography, one would certainly agree to such; that it concerns us, because the problems faced are very real and speaks of truth, however sad(or liberating) as one may see fit. Ultimately, it works because it succeeds in doling out quintessential truths about our humanity, of our very lives.

• Jim H

  
  After being lied to by his doctor, a bureaucrat discovers that he has inoperable stomach cancer, and he searches hedonism, a co-worker, and his work for fulfillment before he meets his end. This film is simply marvelous. The performance by Takashi Shimura as the dying man is… More
  After being lied to by his doctor, a bureaucrat discovers that he has inoperable stomach cancer, and he searches hedonism, a co-worker, and his work for fulfillment before he meets his end. This film is simply marvelous. The performance by Takashi Shimura as the dying man is remarkable for his quiet sadness and determination. The scenes in which he sings on the swing and in the bar are nearly magical in their ability to draw the audience in to Watanabe's mental state. His outbursts to Toyo are passionate and riveting. Kurosawa's direction is at top form. I think my favorite shot is the foregrounding of the dying man and his co-worker at a restaurant while in the background there is a joyous birthday celebration. It is pure visual poetry, as the background action carries on, each of its participants doomed to one day be in the foreground. What is Kurosawa saying with this film? It can't simply be reduced to another "carpe diem" anthem, though there are elements of this. Rather, I think Kurosawa realizes that we've all heard "carpe diem" before, but the tragedy of life is that we fail to recognize its exigence until it's too late. We see this both in Watanabe's reaction to his impending death and the wake scene in the third act. Overall, this is undoubtedly Kurosawa's best film, focusing on the frailty of the human condition and the temporal limitations of life.

• Cindy I

  
  Films don't come much better than this. Ikiru, which means "To Live" in Japanese, is the story of a city employee who after 30 years on the job, never having missed a day of work, finds out he has cancer and has less than a year to live. As he starts to evaluate his… More
  Films don't come much better than this. Ikiru, which means "To Live" in Japanese, is the story of a city employee who after 30 years on the job, never having missed a day of work, finds out he has cancer and has less than a year to live. As he starts to evaluate his life, he realizes that he didn't have one. Not only had he never had any fun in his life -- he's even accused of being miserly several times -- he doesn't even know HOW to have fun. His entire time on earth was just a prologue to his death. After much soul-searching, he discovers he can make a contribution and end his life with some kind of accomplishment uder his belt. <br/>Takeshi Shimura, who was a staple of director Akira Kurosawa's earlier films, gives a heartbreaking performance as Mr. Watanabe. A memorable scene is when Watanabe is in a bar and begins to sing a song that begins "Life is brief". The camera pans in for a close-up and tears well up in his eyes and roll down his face as he sings. You realize that he never gave that phrase a second thought until that very moment. After just one viewing of this film, I can place Shimura's performance in my top favorites of all-time. <br/>If it's possible for a film to change people's lives, this one could do it. High schools should make Ikiru required viewing for graduation. Even if it saved one person from wasting his or her life, it would be worth it.

• First L

  
  "This stomach belongs to the protaganist of our story. At this point he has no idea he has this cancer". So says the narration over the beginning of Ikiru, the 1952 film from Akira Kurosawa. It then goes on to show "the protaganist", a public relations section… More
  "This stomach belongs to the protaganist of our story. At this point he has no idea he has this cancer". So says the narration over the beginning of Ikiru, the 1952 film from Akira Kurosawa. It then goes on to show "the protaganist", a public relations section chief (of his local government) hunched over a desk in front of a wall of bundled papers. "It would be tiresome to meet him now, after all he's simply passing time without actually living his life. In other words, he's not even really alive." If he's not really alive, neither are his co-workers, who play bureaucratic hot potato with a group of citizens ("passing the buck" seems to be the natural state of government, or so the film says). Besides skewering government bureaucracy, Ikiru also draws parallels to Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film, "Wild Strawberries": with the looming specter of death at hand, a single father ponders the relationship he has with his son (and also his own mortality) while trying to cling to the vibrancy of life he finds in a younger girl. What's sad about this movie isn't necessarily that the old man is dying, but how everyone around him is barely living. The prostitutes, the writer, the mafia, his governmental co-workers, his family, even the doctors who tell him he's dying, none of them are honest or happy (or honest and happy, apparently you can't be both). Only his frivolous young female co-worker makes the most of the life she has. She doesn't waste a second of her time being in unhappy situations, and points out false sacrifice of dedicating his life for his son. The story of the old man who finds out he's dying and then has a change of heart may not be revolutionary, but the style and perspective in which it's told is more unique than similar stories. "To live", is what the film's title translates into, but "life without purpose is meaningless" is the message. Those without purpose are simply living to die. But if you do something good for others because you have nothing to lose and you know you're going to die, is that as morally good as doing something for others when you have something to lose? (Aren't we all dying in the long run, and shouldn't we live our lives accordingly?) Is it cynical to even ask? It's a discussion raised in the film, where the old man's co-workers decide to honor his memory by living as he did at the end. Kurosawa plays on the audience's emotions, especially our sense of outrage, quite effectively at the end. Whether it's a shot at politicians and bureaucrats or whether it's a shot at the human race in general is up for debate.

• danny d

  
  profound. everything about this film is moving. it inspires the viewer to not waste his life. kurosawas shots are perfect as always and the side characters are just as compelling as the lead character. this is considered one of kurosawas 2 masterpieces along with seven samurai,… More
  profound. everything about this film is moving. it inspires the viewer to not waste his life. kurosawas shots are perfect as always and the side characters are just as compelling as the lead character. this is considered one of kurosawas 2 masterpieces along with seven samurai, there are 5 or 6 kurosawa films i like better but thats only because everything he does is so good. this movie is near flawless and i highly reccommend it to anyone. it will tug at your heart and make you doubt whether anything you do is worth your time.

• Anthony L

  
  A beautiful heart warming story of life, death and peace. Kurosawa is undoubtedly the greatest director ever and Shimura's Mr. Watanabe is probably my most favourite cinema character of all time. This is one of the greatest films ever made!

• El Hombre I

  
  Akira Kurosawa's brilliant 1952 film Ikiru (meaning "to live" in english) is one of the most important and moving essays on what it means to be truly alive. The film is one in a series of Kurosawa masterpieces made between 1952 and 1963, considered to be the… More
  Akira Kurosawa's brilliant 1952 film Ikiru (meaning "to live" in english) is one of the most important and moving essays on what it means to be truly alive. The film is one in a series of Kurosawa masterpieces made between 1952 and 1963, considered to be the filmmaker's richest period, yet is frequently overlooked by new fans charmed by the action-packed samurai masterpieces that have become so popular in the West. This is a really great film, with some of the most memorable images I have witnessed on screen, making it easily one of Kurosawa's best efforts. To those that pay attention, it has the potential to be a life altering experience. <a href="http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/?action=view&current=ikiru-11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/ikiru-11.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

• E.J. B

  
  Everything you need to know about life is in this film.

• Kalel J

  
  A highly humanistic and sympathetic film, Ikiru endeavours to shine light on the dark recesses of a modernising world - the corporate sector. The mundanity of work and it's ability to strip us of a real sense of purpose in life is explored as a pinhole in the grander notion of… More
  A highly humanistic and sympathetic film, Ikiru endeavours to shine light on the dark recesses of a modernising world - the corporate sector. The mundanity of work and it's ability to strip us of a real sense of purpose in life is explored as a pinhole in the grander notion of our outlook of life - and death. It seems a strange point that life is cherished most when death is given a voice. With Kurosawa's brilliantly placed camera, segregating cast members as mere pylons in their environment, and the beautiful touches of Shimura in a class defining performance, Ikiru is a film that works well. Yet, while there are moments of tenderness and connection, it just feels as though the severity in the sombre tone of the film tends to draw back on the potential for audience connection to be taken to a peak. I was touched, but I was never moved like I should have been.

• xGary X

  
  Ikiru is Akira Kurosawa in full social commentary mode. It is the story of a civil servant who hasn't missed a day of work in 30 years, and when faced with the news that he is going to die, he realises that it was 30 years wasted. The engaging first half of the film is spent in… More
  Ikiru is Akira Kurosawa in full social commentary mode. It is the story of a civil servant who hasn't missed a day of work in 30 years, and when faced with the news that he is going to die, he realises that it was 30 years wasted. The engaging first half of the film is spent in the company of Takashi Shimura as he deals with the prospect of death, and tries to figure out exactly what it is that will make his last 6 months on Earth worthwhile. It's a touching portrait of a man so entrenched in the mundane he has no idea what's important anymore; a kind of anti-Lester Burnham. When he finally realises what he must do, we are introduced to his funeral, where the various factions within his life bicker and relive his last weeks, trying to dissect it to discover what had brought about such a profound change. This rather dry and less emotionally involving section is Kurosawa's attack on the petty bureaucracy of Japanese government, too involved with it's own selfish ends and politics to care about ordinary people. Ikiru is a film that examines what it SHOULD be that drives us to live our lives, and compares it to what actually does. Although quite Capra-esque in it's representation of a man suddenly fighting for what is right, the rose tinted glasses definitely come off for the climax when Watanabe's example is quickly forgotten in the busy hum-drum of everyday life. That is not to say the film is downbeat though; after all, it's down to each of us to decide which example we decide to follow...

• Tim S

  
  A beautiful story, but the flashbacks took me out of it. It works best as a satire of local government agencies more than anything.

• Pierluigi P

  
  Akira Kurosawa and Takashi Shimura outdo themselves in this heartbreaking drama. dealing once again, with fantastic lirycism, the crucial issues of shaping individual destiny in a world where there's no reason to live as one more zombie-like bureaucrat. powerful statement.

• Stella D

  
  a heartrending tale of a faceless civil servant who finds a purpose in life by facing his own death; a simply wonderful film that provides lots of food for thought

• Jennifer X

  
  Takashi Shimura has these big, juicy eyes that make him look like he's in a constant state of shock.

• Adam M

  
  I wonder if Kurosawa was thinking about Tolstoy when he made this

• Drew S

  
  Ikiru is possibly one of the most powerful message movies ever - a flawless manifestation of the "live life to the fullest" mantra that dogs many films. The first hour and a half of this movie is absolutely touching. Takashi Shimura is perfect, almost to a fault, as… More
  Ikiru is possibly one of the most powerful message movies ever - a flawless manifestation of the "live life to the fullest" mantra that dogs many films. The first hour and a half of this movie is absolutely touching. Takashi Shimura is perfect, almost to a fault, as Watanabe, and his two companions are fantastic characters that are portrayed very well. The movie even got a tear out of me about an hour in. Unfortunately, an overlong, blustery third act kind of brings the movie down. It's a powerful part of the film, no doubt about that, but what was accomplished in 45 minutes could very easily have been done in 15 or 20 with just the same amount of quality. Watanabe's coworkers just kept saying the same thing over and over again, and I was starting to lose interest. That's really too bad, especially considering the final few minutes of the movie are awesome. Kurosawa could have done better than that. This certainly deserves its classic status, but it's a little bit aged and certainly slow. Few will appreciate it anymore, and that's a tragedy. If you've got the attention span, see Ikiru.

• Michael G

  
  Beautifully heartbreaking.

• Christopher M

  
  Not only Kurosawa's best, but one of the single greatest filmmaking achievements of all time. A classic story and an immense performance by Takashi Shimura make this unmissable.

• Luke B

  
  Kurosawa proves he's anything but just a samurai film maker. A tender story told in two halves. Giving us a well rounded view of the protagonist. Never too sentimental either.

• Matthew Y

  
  Kurosawa's answer to It's a Wonderful Life, Ikiru is a very memorable tale of a man who finds out he is dying. He first sets out to drink his sorrows away, then we wants to live the final days of his life to the fullest, or perhaps he just wants to make some meaningful… More
  Kurosawa's answer to It's a Wonderful Life, Ikiru is a very memorable tale of a man who finds out he is dying. He first sets out to drink his sorrows away, then we wants to live the final days of his life to the fullest, or perhaps he just wants to make some meaningful contact with another person. The film concludes with a group of men discussing the man's life at his funeral and we discover the last thing he did was use his money to build a park, a lasting memorandum of himself, and our last image of the character is him swinging happily in the park he created. Kurosawa smartly chose the more weathered and veteran actor Takashi Shimura to play Watanabe instead of his usual love affair with Mifune. I don't know why I didn't enjoy Ikiru (I should have loved it) and unfortunately I found it to be a rare Kurosawa film where the concept is better than the execution. This and Rashomon are the only two classic Kurosawa films that disappointed me and I feel bad because clearly I'm on the outside looking in because both are considered universal masterpieces.

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